We know your heart is in the right place but this isn’t on (Picture: Getty Images)

As well as not offering elderly people seats they should also be encouraged to exercise more as taking it easy could be damaging their health and costing the UK billions of pounds in social care each year.

Writing in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), experts from Oxford University and the UK’s Centre for Ageing Better said exercise could keep a person from needing care by reversing physical decline by up to a decade.

Researchers argued there needed to be a change in mentality in general, adding: ‘Ensuring that as many people as possible maintain the ability to manage vital activities of daily living requires a cultural change so that it becomes normal to expect people of all ages to be active.

‘The prevailing attitude that exercise is for young people while older people should be encouraged to relax needs to be challenged.’

They wrote: ‘Encouraging recent research suggests that the key to reducing the incidence of dementia is unlikely to be any new drug but through encouraging activities that are important in keeping healthy and feeling well in the short term.’

In total the bill for social care is more than £100 billion a year but this could hopefully be cut through exercise.

But please, if you see an old person who looks like they need a seat – yes, it’s ok to ask if they would like it – let them have yours.